Peter Whalen is no longer on the Hearthstone Team.
Yesterday we reported on the departure of Mike Donais and it looks like he's been joined by Peter Whalen. The two are still working together at Blizzard and on the same project. These are the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the Hearthstone team and Blizzard themselves, though these two have decided to remain with the company. We're really wondering what they're working on and if it could have any relation to their previous involvement in roguelikes and Hearthstone's Battlegrounds.
Peter joined the Hearthstone team in July 2015. Prior to joining Blizzard, he created a roguelike deckbuilding game called Dream Quest. Most recently he held the role of Senior Game Designer on the Hearthstone team. You can find him over on Twitter @LegendaryFerret.
Quote From Peter Whalen I'm doing great. Still at Blizzard, but not on Hearthstone anymore. Making something cool with Mike but we're a long way off from talking about it in more detail.
Comments
They didn't say a new game... just a different game. Given their experience with roguelike games... might they be helping with the new roguelike content in wow shadowlands?
Who's next, Dean Ayala and Dave Kosak? Soon there'll literally be 0 people from the original Team 5.
Reading the news the last couple of days, there are 2 things that crossed my mind:
1. HS dead soon? (ie. Heroes of the Storm-type of death)
2. HS 2 (virtual-reality with tables to flip over-type of game)
And no, I ain't one of the doomsayers or the hype guys. I, personally, believe none of the above is true and both of them are the extreme versions of what this new project may be. But nonetheless, it still got me thinking, now more than ever, since they made the no-blinking-man, together with Dave Kosak (lol) basically the face of HS after Brode left. This allocation of "resources" must mean something.
If those creators left on their own, it might mean, that they felt that HS:
1. is not moving in the right direction
2. is not moving fast enough and the competition is getting thougher
3. is not moving at all
which is bad for us, the HS community and the game, no matter what the reason might be.
If they were relocated by Blizzard themselves, that might mean, that Blizzard are thinking, that:
1. HS need less resources, for whatever reason (same as HotS) and those resources are better spent somewhere else. Because, in my opinion, the worst thing that can happen to a creator of any sort is to stop being creative. And the monotone work can cause that. So, a change of the field, can sharpen the mind once again.
2. in order to chage (I am carefully not using the word "improve") the game drastically, they need to change it's roots.
I would really love to know, what you guys think. And I hope it's, at the end of the day, it's for the best for the game, that we all play and love/hate so much.
It's that kind of awkward ''good bye, haha oh well ... not really '' ... then you still have walk in the same direction for a few blocks
All this shuffling already has me excited for Blizzcon. I can imagine them going for two big ones in a row, to quietly push 2018 into the corner.
And the 2019 warcraft 3 Desaster...
Good for Peter and his future. However with Donais also gone, I'm concerned about Hearthstones future.
Wonder if we'll hear announcements from Dave Kosak or Iksar?
Seems to me like they plucked a few talented people from the Hearthstone team to lead a new project. Or maybe the two of them came up with an idea for a new game and got the green light to start working on it so they are in early stages and likely going to build a new team of their own. Others could make the jump to the new project, but even if they do they have a lot of other people on the Hearthstone team that may not be as well known publicly, but likely capable of filling their shoes.
It's not weird for personnel to be shuffled around. What I find weird is the lack of an announcement, which tells me there could be a few more people who got transferred and they were waiting to announce it all at once. It could also indicate Mike and/or Peter weren't too happy about it, so they let it slip early, but that'd be making too many assumptions imo.
I think the two of them came up with an idea for a new game so they left the HS team to start initial concept and design work on the new project.
Has it just been people on the hearthstone team moving to another, or has this been happening recently with their other games too?
Haven't heard of anyone else yet, but I only pay attention to WoW and OW to a lesser extent.
Warcraft 4 confirmed!
do you really want that after the Reforged meltdown?
wtf
So is it a new VR game or something?
I fucking hope not. I whish them good luck and I'm sure they will be great assets for whatever game they are working on